FALLS CHURCH, Va, (AP) – A Northern Virginia man who was convicted nearly a decade ago of supporting the Islamic State group as a teenager now faces charges of violating his parole terms by meeting with convicted Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh.
According to court documents, the FBI photographed Ali Shukri Amin meeting with Lindh on three separate occasions for approximately three hours. The document does not state where the meetings took place. The encounters violate a condition of Amin’s supervised release, which prohibits him from meeting known extremists, prosecutors said.
The meetings could also have been a violation of Lindh’s supervised release when they took place, but Lindh’s supervised release term expired last year and he is no longer under supervision.
It is not entirely clear why authorities used the meeting as a basis to claim a violation against Amin but not Lindh, as they were both forbidden from meeting with extremists.
However, the court documents show that authorities had reason to be concerned about Amin beyond his encounters with Lindh. Amin, who lives in Dumfries, is also accused of corresponding online with a British individual described as a “known extremist” until that person was arrested by UK authorities in February 2022.
In his conversations with the British person, authorities say Amin provided guidance regarding the teachings of two Islamic preachers who are considered extremists by the FBI, according to the court document.
The document also accuses Amin of using a virtual private network to hide his online activities and evade his parole officer’s scrutiny.
Michael Jensen, a researcher with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, said terrorism suspects are assigned to seasoned probation officers who spend significant time and energy helping them return to their communities. Petition to withdraw supervised release.
“If a probation officer petitions the court to revoke the supervised release, they are very concerned that the individual will not successfully reintegrate into their community and that they will remain a potential threat,” he said.
However, it is clear that the FBI and other agencies continue to have concerns about Lindh’s activities, ideology and continued radicalization even after his release from prison in 2019. and is believed by the FBI to harbor extremist ideas.”
Lindh was the first American to face major terrorism charges after the September 11 attacks. He was convicted of providing services to the Taliban after being captured in Afghanistan in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks while fighting with Taliban forces against the US-backed Northern Alliance.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison as part of a plea deal and was released in 2019 after serving about 85 percent of his sentence, with the remainder reduced for good behavior.
Shortly before he was released, a judge imposed additional restrictions on his three-year supervised period, in addition to the original conditions, which included a ban on meeting known extremists. The new requirements included monitoring software on its internet devices; require its online communications to be conducted in English; and prohibiting him from possessing extremist material, holding a passport or leaving the US
Amin’s case was particularly notable because of his age. It is rare for federal prosecutors to seek and obtain convictions against people under the age of 18. But Amin was 17 when in 2015 he pleaded guilty to aiding the Islamic State group by using social media to give advice and encouragement to the Islamic State group and its supporters under the Twitter handle Amreekiwitness – Amreeki translates to “American”.
He also admitted helping a classmate, 18-year-old Reza Niknejad, travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.
He was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, but his sentence was later reduced to six years. Still, he filed multiple lawsuits and petitions to have his conviction overturned. In a lawsuit, he accuses the FBI of “manipulating his underdeveloped childhood brain” and contributing to his radicalization by placing his online activities under surveillance at a young age.
While admitting guilt, he argued that his online activities should have been protected by freedom of speech and that he was wrongly prosecuted “on the basis of his confession of views inconsistent with the normative scope of the US bipartisan consensual.”
A hearing on withdrawing the release under Amin’s supervision is scheduled for February 13. Amin’s attorney, Jessica Carmichael, declined to comment, but is expected to file a motion on behalf of her client before the hearing.
Judges have the option of returning defendants to prison or extending their time under supervision, although in Amin’s case he has already been sentenced to life supervision.
